Asian fish and peanut sauce noodles

I love the idea of combining fish with pasta, but not all pasta and fish combinations work well in real life. What I found, however, is that using Asian flavors to create a base sauce for pasta and fish is always a win. For example, if you haven’t yet tried my recipe for Asian salmon and noodles with snow peas and mushrooms - please do! It’s really good and ridiculously easy to make, it remains one of my top recipes of choice for making dinner at the end of the hard work day. And now, let me introduce you to my other recent favorite, Asian fish and peanut sauce noodles:

This recipe is also very easy to make, and, let’s face it, you can’t really go wrong with a peanut sauce and noodles. So, by choosing peanut sauce for my noodles, I was already off to a good start! The peanut sauce here is very simple and is somewhat of a cross between Pad Thai and drunken noodles. If you like either one of those dishes you will love this recipe! I make the peanut sauce by first combining fish sauce, honey (or brown sugar if you don’t have honey), rice vinegar and red pepper flakes in a pan and heating the ingredients until they all mix together, and honey becomes liquid and easy to stir. Then I add some coconut milk and just a tablespoon of red curry paste – I like to use a very spicy one, such as of Mae Ploy brand, but Thai Kitchen brand will work too. Finally, I add a very creamy peanut butter – I used Skippy brand in this recipe. You don’t want to add “real” or homemade peanut butter because it will not be able to blend in as well, use Skippy or Jiffy brands istead for guaranteed results. Stir this peanut butter mixture on low-medium heat until everything is well combined:

Then, I cook rice stick noodles or fettuccine pasta (if you don’t have rice noodles) according to package instructions and add to the sauce:

Then, the only thing you have left to do is to sear fish fillets on very high heat and make a very simple and quick glaze to pour over the fish. Searing the fish is very easy as long as you get your skillet really hot. Only when the skillet is very hot do you add a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, which should immediately sizzle and even smoke a bit. Then you add fish fillets seasoned with salt and pepper, without crowding them, and sear for about 2 minutes on each side.

What’s great about this recipe is that you are not limited to a certain type of white fleshed fish. I cooked black cod for this recipe, which is what you see on these photos – because I have lots of it in my freezer, and I find black cod to be very forgiving and impossible to screw up while cooking: it’s a very flaky and buttery fish, and it does not dry out easily. But, in reality, you can use any other white fish such as tilapia, sea bass, halibut, mahi mahi, etc.

1) Mix first 4 ingredients for the peanut sauce in a large pan, heat it up on low-medium heat, stirring to melt honey. Then add peanut butter, coconut milk and red curry paste, continuing to stir until very creamy. If it is a little bit watery – that’s fine.

2) Cook rice noodles or fettuccine according to package instructions. Add noodles to the peanut sauce, keep it on warm (if you have that setting) or off the heat – otherwise too much liquid from peanut sauce will evaporate

3) To make the glaze: combine 2 tablespoons of brown sugar or honey, 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice, 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar in small sauce pan, cook on medium-high heat until the glaze thickens slightly. Set aside and keep covered while you cook fish:

4) Season fish on both sides with salt and pepper. Heat a large skillet on high heat until very hot. Add 3 tablespoons of olive oil – it should sizzle immediately. Add fish fillets to the skillet without crowding them, and sear about 2 minutes on each side. I’ve used black cod but any other white fish will work too.

5) To serve, place a scoop of peanut sauce noodles in the middle of the plate, top with the fish fillet, pour some glaze over, making sure you have enough glaze for other fish fillets. Sprinkle with chopped green onions or chives on top, if desired.

YUM! I just had this!! Mom in law was over and loved it too, and she was surprised it was so QUICK to make too! I just totally forgot the chives for garnish… next time http://instagram.com/p/aWCZ-GwqQU/

Hi Julia, We just signed up for a fish delivery service. Every week, we get 2 different kinds of fish caught off Cape Cod. My husband used to work on the Cape for a few weeks every summer. One night, he had a halibut dish similar to your recipe. He still raves about it. You’ve inspired me with your red curry and coconut milk sauce. Must make this as soon as our fish arrives!

Oh, how wonderful that you will be getting regular supply of fresh fish now! I still have quite a few fresh fish fillets in the freezer that were shipped to us fresh from Seattle seafood market. Nothing compares to fresh seafood!

I love fish and this recipe looks like something I could do, but I have a few questions: Do you have any idea what the calorie count is? Would it work with Zucchini ‘noodles’ substituted for the other kind? Is this spicy at all? And if so, what could I do to make it less so? I’m sorry if these questions are a bit…dumb….but I have lived my almost 35 years with the firm belief that I don’t like to cook and therefore cannot. However, I am finally trying to get healthy and now realize that I actually do like to cook. It helps that I have lost 31 pounds and am on track to lose more! Thank you for your help.